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working this summer on streambank stabilization projects and are working with a local business 

 to improve the Slough on their property. The students are being paid for their work during the 

 summer months and are expected to receive their high school diploma, after which they will 

 receive a voucher for their continued education. Without funding from H.R. 4289 and other 

 sources these projects will not be possible. 



APPROPRIATENESS OF THE SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE TO ADMINISTER THE PROGRAM 



The Coalition to Restore Urban Waters has worked closely with the Soil Conservation 

 Service on numerous projects, both at the local and national levels. The SCS was a prime 

 sponsor of our first national conference. Friends of Trashed Rivers, which drew more than 200 

 grassroots urban stream restoration groups from around the country to San Francisco in the fall of 

 1993. Again, we have drawn on the California model in recommending the Soil Conservation 

 Service as the most appropriate agency to administer the program. The Soil Conservation Service 

 and the local Soil and Water Conservation Districts are engaged in day-to-day work with private 

 property owners and are uniquely suited to rapid delivery of technical support and on-the-ground 

 support for projects envisioned under H.R. 4289. 



I want to emphasize that previous projects which have been funded through PL 566 have 

 not had the economic, ecological and social benefits of projects that will be encouraged under 

 this legislation. We feel one of the most significant benefits of working on H.R. 4289 has been 

 establishing a working relationship with SCS staff at both the national and local level to ensure 

 that H.R. 4289 meets the needs of that agency as well as our objective of encouraging more 

 ecologically and socially sensitive restoration projects. We are confident that SCS's new Urban 

 and Community Assistance initiative will provide the focus necessary to ensure that the 

 objectives outlined in H.R. 4289 will be met by SCS. At the local level we are already working 

 closely with SCS, Oregon Department of Agriculture and the local Soil and Water Conservation 

 Districts to put in place a program to implement H.R. 4289. We have local buy-in for the 

 program. What we need now is funding to get projects into the ground, to create local jobs for 

 at-risk and disadvantaged youth and to restore our urban waterways. 



SUGGESTED CHANGES TO H.R. 4289 



Quite frankly, we believe that the bill, as written, reflects more than two years of 

 cooperative efforts to meet everyone's concerns concerning the restoration elements, 

 appropriateness of the administering agency and the use of PL 566 as a programmatic home for 

 the program. We have met with every national conservation organization, representatives from 

 the agricultural community, SCS and Soil and Water Conservation District staff and other federal 

 agencies to ensure that H.R. 4289 met all of their needs. The language in H.R. 4289 has been 

 reviewed numerous times by these and other groups and has been revised to reflect the concerns 

 of our constituents as well as those in the agricultural community who would be most directly 

 affected by amendments to PL 566. We recognize that, while PL 566 has resulted in 

 environmentally damaging projects in the past, it now has the potential to be a powerful tool in 

 restoring our nation's urban and rural aquatic ecosystems. We urge you to work towards 

 immediate passage of this legislation to provide us with tools to get on with the task at hand, 

 restoring some of our country's most degraded urban waterways as well as the communities 

 through which they flow. 



1. National Wetlands Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 6. November/December, 1993, 

 Environmental Law Institute. 



